Parents in Kildare furious as children of gaelscoileanna ignored
February 16, 2012
THE PARENTS OF more than 1,600 primary school children are planning actions against the Department of Education and Skills following a decision to block the establishment of a post-primary gaelscoil in Maynooth.
Earlier this month, the DES refused to accept an application from An Foras Patrúntachta to take on the patronage of a new school due to be built in the North Kildare town in 2014.
An Coiste Bunaithe (the founding committee for gaelcoláiste) has applied twice in the past five years to establish an Irish-medium secondary school in the area but has failed in both attempts.
There are currently four primary schools who teach through Irish in North Kildare which would be feeder schools for any such coláiste. Those children currently have few options to continue their post-primary education through the medium of Irish.
On announcing plans to build a new school in Maynooth last June, Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said the criteria used in deciding on patronage would place a particular emphasis on “parental demand for plurality and diversity”.
“Parental preferences should be at the centre of considerations about the type of school to be recognised,” Quinn also said.
Last week, the Department of Education posted what they saw as the valid expressions of interest from patronage bodies. An Foras Patrúnachta’s application was excluded.
Those from County Kildare VEC – which already runs a school in the North Kildare town – and the Loreto Education Trust were accepted.
The Department told TheJournal.ie that a decision had previously been made that the new school in Maynooth would operate through English.
However, it advised that prospective patrons must be willing to establish an Aonad (an Irish speaking unit) if there is demand for one.
Colm Ó Cearúil from An Coiste Bunaithe said this was not enough for the number of children currently being educated through Irish. It would also fail to cater for the growth in the area, he said.
Ó Cearúil said the parents of the children attending the local primary schools are furious and frustrated by the decision. “We are taking a three-pronged action against the decision,” he said, adding that it could lead to a legal challenge.
The parents of the children attending Gaelscoil Uí Fhiaich in Maynooth, Scoil Uí Dhálaigh in Leixlip, Scoil Uí Riada in Kilcock and Gaelscoil na nÓg in Dunboyne are furious that their wish to have their children continue their education through the medium of Irish should be dismissed in such an unjust manner.”
He said that they had been willing to compromise and look at taking on a joint patronage of the school – a solution used in other areas of the country.
Previous applications for gaelscoileanna in Maynooth and other parts of North Kildare were refused as Coláiste Cois Life in nearby Lucan was not at capacity.
“North Kildare was told it could not have an Irish secondary school once there were empty seats in the Lucan school. That is no longer the case as the school is now full,” explained Ó Cearúil.
We demand that Ruairí Quinn explains why the DES is opposed to a Gaelcholáiste in Maynooth and to explain why Co. Kildare VEC is posted when the Minister’s own criteria calls for diversity of choice given that the VEC already has a school in the town.”
The group met with a community council this week, as well as local TD Bernard Durkan to discuss the issue.
The large Irish-speaking community in Maynooth has sprang up since a group of parents decided to establish an Irish-speaking primary school by renting local premises from their own funds. North Kildare lost out to Lucan in the previous application for a secondary school.
The new school is due to be built in 2014. A final decision will be made after the closing deadline for applications for patronage on 24 February.
Of the schools due to be built in 2013 and 2014, three will be Irish speaking – one in North Dublin, one in South Dublin and another in Cork. VECs have applied for the patronage of 14 new post-primary schools across the country.
The Journal.ie
A simple formula for education
February 16, 2012
A chara,
There is, of course, merit in some of the 10 changes recommended by Ivan Yates for Irish education (Education Today, February 14th) but unfortunately whatever merit there is, is undermined by the author’s underlying view that the role of education is to serve the needs of the so-called free market.
He writes about rationalisation, as in the consolidation of small rural schools. He talks about incentivising good teaching with financial reward — as if good teachers could be bought. He mentions the critical competitive advantage we have with a natural English-speaking workforce but uses this, not to support, but to undermine the teaching of Irish as our own unique second national language.
According to Mr Yates, “If both Irish and religious studies were replaced by computer studies/information technology learning, we could greatly enhance economic performance”. So there you have it, the solution to our economic woes, from one of the erstwhile heroes of the Celtic Tiger era!
The Irish education system certainly has loads of issues to deal with, but I really do think that Mr Yates should stick to his bookmaking and leave the book learning and teaching to the educationalists. The great majority of teachers can still take pride in belonging to what has always been one of the noblest of all professions, teaching. – Is mise,
JOHN GLENNON,
Cillín Chaoimhín,
Co Chill Mhantáin.
A chara, – While I somewhat agree with Aonghus Ó hAlmhain’s assertion (February 15th) that mastery of one’s native language is a vital asset of a competent programmer, I disagree that the native language of today’s Ireland is An Ghaeilge.
As both a holder of a degree in Irish and a technology professional, I agree with Ivan Yates’s assertion that technology and Irish should at least be optional subjects in our schools. Both were options for me at school in the North over 25 years ago and I find it regrettable that such models are resisted here still. Exposure to basic programming logic at secondary level stood me in good stead in my later career.
I would prefer to have composed this letter in Irish, but the reality is that most of my fellow readers would not understand or bother to translate it. The current education system has failed to revive the language, but we irrationally persist.
Meantime, incredibly in today’s climate, my IT colleagues still find it difficult to recruit capable IT professionals from our nation’s talent pool. – Is mise,
STIOFÁN MacCLÉIRIGH,
An Machaire,
Domhnach Bat,
Co Átha Cliath.
Irish Times
Eagraíochtaí Gaeilge slán go dtí Meitheamh 2013
February 15, 2012
Mayo teachers to bring small schools’ campaign to Taoiseach’s door
February 15, 2012
Primary school teachers from Mayo, and across the region, are to take their campaign to save small rural schools to the door of the Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s constituency office in Castlebar on Saturday, February 25th. Up to 3,000 representatives from small schools across County Mayo and its borders are expected to take part in the march.
The organisers of the Save Our Small Schools Campaign say that they plan to hand in a letter of petition calling for the reversal of retrospective budget cuts to education, in particular those affecting small schools.
The move comes in the wake of Budget cuts announced in December 2011, which increased the pupil teacher ratio retrospectively, basing next year’s posts on September 30, 2011 numbers which were later increased in Decembers Budget.
Up to 150 small schools across County Mayo have joined together to launch a campaign under the umbrella of the Save Our Small Schools group in Mayo against measures taken in December’s budget and having received considerable support up and down the West Coast of Ireland a protest march expected to attract up to 3,000 people will take place on February 25 in Castlebar.
The march will go from the Mall to the Taoiseach’s constituency office on Tucker St. where a letter/petition “signed by over 3,000 people protesting the cuts and will be hand delivered by Mr Kenny’s constituents in Mayo and supporters from affected rural communities”, say the organisers.
The aim is to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on small schools after the budget annoucements.
The protest marchers will gather at the Mall in Castlebar at 1.30pm and will follow a protest route through the town. Following a short address at 2pm by Tom Byrne, Princpal of Partry N.S.,the marchers will continue onto Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s office.
Please the Troika
The effects of Budget in Dec 2011 will leave many communities with no option but to close their local school or to amalgamate with larger town schools, according to the Save Our Small Schools Campaign.
Commenting on the situation one Mayo school principal, Caithríona Carty said, “I am shocked that Mayo has three T.D.s and a Taoiseach in Government who are willing to turn a blind eye to what is happening in their local communities to please the Troika.
“The Taoiseach himself attended and worked in small schools in Mayo, is he going to stand by and watch this happen?”
“These cuts are a direct attack on small rural communities, removing the focal point and diminishing communities throughout rural Ireland, targeting small schools and special needs children.
“The minister doesn’t seem to realise that not everybody can or wants to live in urban areas and therefore by reducing teachers in these areas, makes it impossible to teach with such limited resources and reduced grants coming into schools,” Ms Carty concluded.
All those interested in supporting the stance are welcome to attend the march and should assemble at the Mall at 1.30pm on Saturday February 25th next.
MAYO TODAY
Government not serious about 20 year strategy?
February 14, 2012
Government does for the independence of Language Commissioner – and there has still been no satisfactory explanation for that – then cuts grants to help student teachers spend a bit of time in the Gaeltacht to learn the language they are supposed to teach, lets Foras na Gaeilge and Irish-language voluntary groups drift without leadership, is in no great rush to save the Gaeltacht and has a Minister of State in charge of the language. Does anyone think this Government is serious about the 20-year strategy?
Ultach, IRISH TIMES
Craobh an Earagail de Chumann Múinteoirí Éireann ag eagrú Mórshiúl ar an Satharn 25 Feabhra i nGaoth Dobhar
February 14, 2012
The formula is simple: real change
February 14, 2012
Entrenched vested interests are hijacking the Irish education system. Those who care about the future need to take it back
Its time to end the monopoly of educationalists determining the future of Irish education. Vested interests of religious structures, the Department of Education, third-level institutions and teacher unions have acted in pursuit of their own narrow goals. The results? Unsustainable costs, the shortest school year, the highest-paid teachers, growing illiteracy, declining academic standards and increasing reliance on migrant workers to fill jobs in technical sectors. Education policy debate is a game for insiders only.
The inevitable outcome is self-serving agendas that fail to meet current economic needs.
We might have hoped that the Minister Ruairí Quinn would be different. He was previously Labour’s opposition education spokesperson. He’s probably on his last ministerial gig, having been in finance and party leader.
His government has the largest parliamentary majority in the history of the state, with reasonable prospects of a five-year term to pioneer reform. Yet last week, he told a student audience in the University of Limerick that it was up to them to deal with poor performing and absentee tutors and lecturers. What an abject failure to tackle dud teachers. Instead of providing accountability he presides over a free pardon.
The pussycat politics of acquiescence seem set to continue. Rarefied university presidents think they deserve to be paid more than the Taoiseach – over €200,000 per annum. Gross unapproved over-expenditure goes unpunished. The Hunt report charted a future course for higher education. It opposed dilution of Irish university status by granting any increase on the current strength of seven.
This is already above international norms based on population. The Government blithely ignores this by promising a new technological university in the southeast to placate ministers such as Howlin (Wexford) and Hogan (Kilkenny). Meanwhile, no Irish university is in the world’s top 100.
Hard questions need to be addressed to our universities and institutes. Contracts for lecturers must be renegotiated. Annual tutoring hours of 560 per year or six hours per week is unacceptable. Research commitments are elusive and unfocused. Poor productivity and asset utilisation were identified in the Bord Snip Nua report, along with abolition of the National Universities of Ireland body. These recommendations gather dust while elitist personnel fail to provide value for money. Graduates receive little follow-up support for employment placement or enhancement.
But the greatest indictment of our education system is not that half of employees for the ICT sector have to be recruited abroad and brought here for Google, Yahoo and Facebook. No, it’s the decline in basic educational attainments.
OECD surveys of 15-year-olds in essential subjects of reading, maths and science since 2000, reflect poorly on our educational output. We declined from 5th to 17th in reading skills and from 16th to 26th in maths. Adult illiteracy is trending towards 20 per cent.
Finland tops these PISA surveys. Its education budget is 6 per cent of GDP. The average class size is 25 pupils. Their school year is an average of 190 days. Here it is 167 and 183 respectively between secondary and primary levels. Finnish teachers are not paid as much as their Irish counterparts. What are the differences? School entry age is seven years, with a pre-school year at six. All teachers must have graduate qualifications to be recruited. Teacher accountability is devolved to local school management.
Poor performance is not tolerated.
Successive ministers for education tend to be ministers for teachers. Upsetting teachers is off limits. Teachers may be fired if they’re found to be drunk in the classroom or fail to carry out the daily roll call. It’s okay that up to 50 per cent of secondary maths teachers are not properly qualified.
There is no insistence on changing this or a timetable for retraining to reach minimum standards. Contracted hours at 1,037 per annum for primary school teachers and 735 hours per annum of secondary level are not up for review. In the Netherlands and Britain, respective comparisons are 1,659 and 1,265 hours per year. The Croke Park
Agreement preserves higher pay. Absenteeism is accepted under the supervision and substitution schemes, costing €36 million annually.
Reform under Croke Park is extremely modest. An extra hour here and there represents tokenism. Some schools still don’t do parent teacher-meetings at times to suit parents. Sick-leave arrangements facilitate up to 21 days absence without medical certification. As close to 80 per cent of the education budget is comprised of teacher salaries and pensions, cost reduction depends on productivity adjustments.
It’s a people business, fair enough. At primary level, we could reduce school enrolments from 60,000 to 20,000 by increasing the school entry age to a minimum of five years. At secondary level, abolition of the transition year would remove one-sixth of the cost of the teaching budget. Both measures together would mean school leaving age would be unchanged. Radical thoughts are absent in Marlborough Street.
It’s important to acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of the vast majority of teachers and academics. Their commitment is undermined by a lack of uniformity throughout the service. We need to reward good teachers. Payment of increments to teachers is automatic, irrespective of performance. Incentives and rewards in the pay structure is anathema to unions.
Good schools, irrespective of whether they are private or public, should be highlighted. Comparative tables providing fair analysis should be freely available to parents who seek choice. The points system, for all its shortcomings, can focus on poor results that can be traced to underperforming teachers. The private grinds industry is testament to this reality. Who cares? Not the professional politicians. Cursory reading of Dáil education debates reveals the extent of former teachers who are TDs.
Irish society is changing rapidly. It is becoming more cosmopolitan and secular. It is also growing. Demographics indicate an increase in the school population of 20 per cent in the decade ahead. The challenge of extra demands and less resources won’t be met with “policy as usual” prescriptions. At primary level, this means consolidation of smaller rural schools. In every other walk of life, rationalisation has occurred.Half parishes cannot sustain individual schools. Improved facilities and greater subject choice are results of mergers. It’s already occurred at post-primary level, with obvious benefits.
The vexed question of consequences from declining adherence to organised religion must also be tackled. This not only means relinquishing of chairmanship and control of local school boards of management, but also alterations to the curriculum. Teaching two-and-a-half hours per week of religious studies could be done by visiting chaplains/ clergy at the end of the school day. Other vital subjects could replace it during the normal timetable. Preparation for first Communion and Confirmation, while on school property, should be conducted outside of the teaching day.
Resistance to change equals postponement of the inevitable. Church leaders such as Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin deserves support for modernisation moves.
Whilst slaying sacred cows, we must confront cultural insecurity.
Despite the critical competitive advantage of having a natural English-speaking workforce, we persist with compulsory Irish language teaching and exams. A diminishing 3 per cent of the population converse in our official tongue. Declining relevance of Irish is swept under the carpet. If both Irish and religious studies were replaced by computer studies/information technology learning, we could greatly enhance economic performance. Heresy? Let’s embrace a future of options rather than obligations.
In summary, educationalists and their specialist cheerleaders in the media believe they alone must chart the future course of Irish education. Most businesses can’t operate in such a bubble. They have to perpetually adapt to their consumers’ needs. Parents, taxpayers, jobseekers and employers observe a system that is living off its past reputation.
Tardiness in reforming the curriculum to meet job requirements is self-evident. We produce excess arts graduates and insufficient trained young adults. We preserve inefficiency and protect bad teachers. Educational systems of emerging markets of South Korea and Singapore are kicking our ass. Endless introspective chants for more money will have to be met by borrowings from creditors of last resort. Special pleading is a dialogue of the deaf, where the troika is concerned. We must integrate the needs of the economy into Irish education, because the converse is unsustainable.
Ten changes needed in Irish education
1 INCREASE SCHOOL ENTRY AGE TO FIVE AND ABOLISH TRANSITION YEAR
2 REVIEW TEACHER CONTRACTS TO INCREASE HOURS AND REMOVE INCENTIVES TO ABSENTEEISM
3 INCENTIVISE GOOD TEACHING WITH FINANCIAL REWARD
4 INTRODUCE COMPARATIVE SCHOOL LEAGUE TABLES
5 CONSOLIDATE SMALL RURAL SCHOOLS
6 MOVE RELIGIOUS TEACHING OUT OF SCHOOL HOURS AND OUT OF THE TEACHERS’ JOB DESCRIPTION
7 ABOLISH COMPULSORY IRISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AND REPLACE WITH COMPUTER STUDIES
8 RENEGOTIATE CONTRACTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION TO INCREASE LECTURERS HOURS AND DEFINE THEIR RESEARCH COMMITMENTS.
9 ELIMINATE OVER-EXPENDITURE IN OUR UNIVERSITIES AND INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY AND REDUCE THE SALARIES OF OUR UNIVERSITY HEADS
10 REDUCE THE NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES AND ABOLISH THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND
Ivan Yates, former cabinet minister, co-presents Breakfast on Newstalk
IRISH TIMES
Co-operation and the Irish language
February 14, 2012
Sir,
Your newspaper contains an article concerning a proposal by Foras na Gaeilge for a new funding model based on schemes rather than organisations (Home News, February 9th).
Some of the assertions by the chief executive of Foras na Gaeilge cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.
Services required by Irish speakers are as diverse as those of the general population. It is, therefore, not excessive that 19 organisations serve those needs on an all-island basis.
Furthermore, there is no basis for the assertion that there is duplication of provision.
As to the assertion that organisations “flatly refused” to co-operate, a report commissioned by Foras na Gaeilge from Mazars identified that collaboration did already exist but that it could be improved. While organisations reviewed do collaborate with other organisations it would appear that this is largely done from a bottom-up perspective, ie each individual organisation collaborates with others to the level of breadth and depth that it as an organisation or they as a group see fit.
A request by Foras na Gaeilge, in 2008, that organisations establish committees to effect greater co-operation between them was well-intentioned but doomed to failure in the absence of an overarching plan or any external facilitation.
I believe that the interest of the current public consultation process would be best served if meaningful engagement were to occur between Foras na Gaeilge and the sector, as requested by the North-South Ministerial Council. – Yours, etc,
ANTOINE Ó COILEÁIN,
Príomhfheidhmeannach,
Gael Linn,
Dame Street,
Dublin 2.
IRISH TIMES
(Gaeilge) Mórshiúl ar son Feachtas na Scoileanna Beaga
February 10, 2012
Coláiste Samhraidh do dhéagóirí
February 10, 2012
